


It's Your Choice- Lance & Healing Pod Malfunction

by the_sinnamon_roll_writes



Series: Bad Things Happen [15]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Blood and Guts, Keith/Lance (Voltron) Angst, Lance (Voltron) Angst, M/M, Pidge | Katie Holt Angst, between the title and the summary i don't think there's realy much to be said, damn I suck at tags, not really just blood guts are gross, not that i haven't written gross stuff before but this isn't that kind of gross i guess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-27
Updated: 2019-04-27
Packaged: 2020-02-08 11:37:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,689
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18622549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_sinnamon_roll_writes/pseuds/the_sinnamon_roll_writes
Summary: When two people get caught, Pidge has to make a choice. And a lot of people aren't happy with the choice she made. A friend requested this a while back, and she got very specific with what she wanted, so this one had a lot of guidance in terms of plot.





	It's Your Choice- Lance & Healing Pod Malfunction

_“Aaand got it,”_ Pidge said. Her tone let everyone know that she had a very self-satisfied smile on her face. _“They won’t be able to contact each other anytime soon. Try not to give them a reason to contact each other though. Don’t tip them off.”_

“We aren’t total amateurs Pidge.” That was Lance, and Keith couldn’t help but smile. “We have done this a time or two before.”

And they had. Sabotaging and stealing Galran goods was fairly old hat to them anymore. This one was only different because of the sheer size of the mission. The base was massive, so the Paladins had recruited help from the rebels to gather the supplies that they were taking. Pidge had been given her usual role of jamming up communication and defense systems in the control room, while everyone else had a specific assigned area to either loot or trash. Keith and Lance had partnered up and were tasked with destroying one of five engine rooms onboard. Shiro and Matt had taken on the largest chunk of the ship, while Hunk had elected to stay back in his Lion with several rebel ships to act as a getaway driver. 

It was all going smoothly until an alarm started flashing red throughout the entire ship. And that wouldn’t have happened unless something was wrong with... 

“Pidge? Pidge, what happened?” Keith demanded. He and Lance both instinctively moved closer together, each adopting a defensive stance. “Pidge, answer me!”

He exchanged a concerned look with Lance. “Do you know where she’s at?” Lance asked anxiously. 

“I- no. Shiro? Are you there?”

_“I’m here Keith, what happened? Why is there an alarm going off?”_

“We don’t know. Lance and I can’t reach Pidge. Do you know where she’s at?”

There was a brief pause before Shiro spoke again. _“Hang on. Matt, do you have any idea where the main control room is? We can’t reach Pidge. Wait, Matt no! Come back, we can’t just run off- fuck! Keith, are you still there? I’ve lost Matt now too, he just ran off.”_

“Shit,” Keith muttered under his breath. “Alright Shiro, lets pull back and regroup. Lance and I have pretty much finished up here- it’ll at least take them a long time to get the ship up and running again. We need to let the rebels know we’re evacuating. Shiro are you at all close to any of them so you can get them the message?”

_“I’m not now, but if I see someone I’ll tell them. I’m sure they’re doing something similar already though. I think we’ve been on the ship long enough to do what we came here to do.”_

“Keep an ear out for Pidge.” Keith saw Lance nod out of the corner of his eye and he reached out to give his hand a quick squeeze. “It’ll be okay. Let’s go.”

And then they were off. It was a good thing they had taken the time to upload maps into their helmets, or else they would’ve gotten totally lost without Pidge guiding them. As it was, it still took almost ten minutes to make it halfway to the bay where their getaway Lion was waiting. 

_“Keith? Shiro? Anyone?”_ Relief flooded through Keith when he heard Pidge’s voice in his helmet. She sounded strained and short of breath, but at least she was there. _“I’m sorry- they found me. I couldn’t stop one of them before he got to the alarm.”_

“Are you okay now though? Pidge, we’re falling back. Can you meet us at the extraction point?” Keith was sprinting as he spoke, only slowing down at corners to poke his head around and watch for guards. 

_“I- yeah. I’ll be there soon.”_

Well, at least she was alive. That was something. 

Apparently the control room was closer to the extraction point than Keith and Lance’s portion had been, as Pidge stumbled into the room at the same time as Keith did. She looked rough- a split lip, three deep scratches across her cheek, and a limp. Keith winced when she had to fall against a wall to catch her breath and take her weight off her leg. “How many were there?”

“Three. They managed to sneak up on me.” She was panting from the exertion, and one shaky hand was reaching down to cover what must’ve been a blaster burn on her right thigh. “They look worse than I do though.”

“Atta girl. Where’s Matt, did he find you?”

Her demeanor changed quickly. “No, he didn’t. Did he leave Shiro?”

“He did,” Shiro said as he came running in. “He went to go find you when he heard that you weren’t responding.”

Pidge straightened up and tried to run for the door back into the base without saying another word. She didn’t make it more than three steps before her leg buckled under her and she went crashing to the ground. “Fuck! Shiro, why would you let him go off alone?”

“I didn’t ‘let him’ do anything. He ran off before I could stop him. Where’s Lance, did he already go?” Shiro asked reaching down to help pull her up. 

Now it was Keith’s turn to stiffen and look around. “He was right behind me. I don’t... Lance?” He asked, switching to the radio in his helmet. “Lance, come in. Where’d you go? Shit, Lance, _please_ answer.”

Shiro sensed what he was about to do next, and placed his hand on Keith’s chest to stop him from running off. “We can’t go back right now. We have injured people, and the Galrans are looking for us. Right now we need to come up with a different plan. Like you said, we managed to do some serious damage to this ship, they aren’t going anywhere anytime soon.”

His words were falling on deaf ears as both Pidge and Keith were staring hard at the door. There wasn’t much that Pidge could do with her injured leg, so Shiro was more worried about Keith doing something rash. Damn. He was going to regret this. Without giving them any warning, Shiro scooped both of them up, throwing them each over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes. It was tricky, carrying two struggling teens, but he managed to haul them into the Yellow Lion quite literally kicking and screaming. “Hunk, go. Get us to the Castle, quick.”

“Uh- okay? What about Lance?” 

“I’ll tell you- ow!” Shiro dropped Pidge when she bit him on the neck. There was no way she would make it outside of the Lion with her leg like it was, but that didn’t stop her from trying. “Hunk, _go!”_

As the Yellow Lion’s mouth shut and she started to take off, Shiro set Keith down as well.

“Shiro, what the fuck?! How could you just leave Lance there?”

“And Matt! Why would you let Matt leave in the first place?”

“Wait, we left two people behind?” Hunk asked, looking alarmed. He had seen Keith and Pidge snap on numerous occasions, but their rage had never been directed at Shiro before. 

“I didn’t have a choice you two. We would be in even more trouble if we all got caught. Rescuing two people will be easier than rescuing five. Pidge, how much damage did you manage to do to their ship?”

“I got all systems off except for the electricity, oxygen, and gravity. I figured those would be pretty important for us to have. And they probably would’ve noticed if I did.” If her scowl was anything to judge by, then she was far from forgiving him. “They won’t be going anywhere for at least four hours.”

“See? We have time to figure something out.”

Both Pidge and Keith continued to glare at Shiro the entire ride back to the Castle. Despite many protests, Pidge was hauled off to the infirmary when they landed. She refused a pod, so Coran simply went about cleaning up and wrapping her injuries. It was a bit frustrating, but it was better than being locked in some fancy refrigerator. 

“So what are we doing?” Pidge asked as she joined the others on the bridge. Shiro caught her eye and gave her a disapproving look that she understood right away. “I’m not going in a pod. I’m fine. Now what’s happening?”

“Well, we were just talking about how you won’t be going anywhere-“

“For fucks sake Shiro, I’m _fine!_ Now just tell me what you guys have come up with already.”

“We need to assume that Lance and Matt have been caught,” Allura said. “And we also need to assume that the Galra are preparing to counter a rescue mission. Right now we have an advantage in that most of their systems are still down. Now depending on which one they get up first-“

She was interrupted by a video feed appearing up on the main screen, featuring the very static-y face of a Galran that they could only assume was in charge of the base they had just raided. 

“Where is- Green Paladin?” No preamble. No explanation. No attempt at small talk. He didn’t even mention how they’d managed to get in contact with them. The connection was annoyingly fuzzy, so it was safe to assume that their communication lines still weren’t performing in top shape. Everyone looked around in confusion. Why would he ask for Pidge? When all eyes landed on her, she stepped forward to stand in full view of the Galran leader. 

“Here I am. What do you want with me?”

“I have a decision for you to make.”

The video zoomed out and Pidge’s blood ran cold. On his right side was Lance, and to his left was her brother. Neither looked to be in great shape. So he had caught them both. Some naive part of her had hoped that somehow they’d managed to avoid capture. That had to be the decision she was going to have to make. It wasn’t fair- her brother had just gotten out of the hands of the Galra, and now he was right back with them? “Matt-”

“Let them go!” Keith was at her side as soon as he saw Lance. 

“You will not be getting both of them back alive- one of them is going to die for what you have done. However, I am offering you a generous deal. The Green Paladin will choose one of these two to survive. I will even allow that human to leave and bring you the other’s body.”

Generous? This was pure sadism. He knew that choosing one of them would drive a wedge between them one way or another. And why was he making Pidge decide?

 

“Choose. The Red Paladin or your brother. Make your choice, little one. Give me a name, or they both die,” he added coldly, carefully studying Pidge’s horrorstruck face. How did he know Matt was her brother? Making her choose made much more sense now. 

“The Red Paladin,” Keith shouted before she had a chance to say anything. “Let the Red Paladin go!”

“I couldn’t care less what you want. I’m asking the one who _ruined_ the majority of my ship’s systems. She caused this; it’s her decision now.”

Pidge could feel the color draining from her face and her head was starting to spin. He was partially right- if she had been more careful and kept the alarm from being triggered, then both Matt and Lance would be safe on the Castle. Neither one of them could die. How could she give him a name? Deep in her heart, she knew that her decision was already made. After everything- after all she had done to find him- she couldn’t let Matt die. She glanced over to Keith, who shook his head rapidly. He knew what she was going to say. Pidge squeezed her eyes shut and took a deep breath before looking back to the officer in front of them. “My brother. L-let Matt go.”

She would never forget that moment. The rage on Keith’s face, the shock on Matt’s face. The terror and betrayal in Lance’s eyes. It was all embedded in her memory, promising to visit her in her dreams. 

“Very well.” Without any hesitation, the Galran seized Lance’s hair and jerked his head back. No one saw where the blade had come from- they only saw the flash of silver being drawn across Lance’s throat. Pidge spun around to avoid looking. From beside her, Keith let out a terrible scream that shook Pidge to her core. He charged at the screen, like he was going to try and jump through it to get to Lance. The commander didn’t even offer Lance a second glance before turning and shoving him into Matt. “Get them off my ship. I have no use for a dead Paladin and a crippled rebel.”

The last thing they saw before the transmission cut off was Matt frantically trying to clamp down on Lance’s neck. 

Keith spun around to face Pidge, shaking in anger. She tried to take a step back, but not before he lunged at her. He grabbed her collar and planted a fist on her nose, immediately drawing blood. His hand flew back and struck her again and then a third time. He had every intent of beating her to an absolute pulp. Before he could land a fourth punch though, Shiro was throwing his arms around Keith’s chest and pulling him back away from her. 

To everyone’s surprise, Pidge hadn’t moved at all, other than to stumble back under the force of the blow. Hunk had caught her before she could actually fall, but she just stayed in place silently. It was only when her chin started to tremble that she stepped away from everyone. “I-I’m sorry. I couldn’t... Keith I’m so sorry... I couldn’t lose him again.”

“Don’t you dare,” Keith snarled, still being held back by Shiro. “Don’t you _fucking_ dare apologize to me. How could you do this to me? To Voltron?”

It seemed like she was shrinking under his gaze, but that didn’t stop him. Her mind was reeling over what had just happened, and she wasn’t able to sort through her thoughts just yet. “He- Matts my brother... how could I...?”

“Lance was your brother too! He thought of you as his little sister, and he would’ve done anything for you. And you betrayed him. You just let him die!” 

“Keith-“

“You haven’t changed a bit- your family is still more important to you than the rest of the universe. You should’ve left back then. You should’ve just gotten in that little ship and left. You shouldn’t even be a part of this team! We were so stupid for thinking that you could ever care about anything beside-“

“Keith, that’s enough,” Shiro said firmly from behind him. “If you’ll recall, we wouldn’t have even made it off of Arus if she had left. We need Pidge just as much as we need everyone else on this team.”

“Of course you’re taking her side.” Keith managed to jerk free from Shiro and turned around to glare daggers at him. “You’re probably glad she chose Matt- you would’ve chosen him over Lance too. You’re still guilty over losing him in the first place, right?”

“I’m not taking anyone’s side! We’re all on the same side, Keith. Pidge had a hard-“

“She stopped being on our side the minute she chose to let one of us die. She gave the Galra a win because she was too weak to do the right thing.” When he turned back around, he saw that Pidge had started crying. He couldn’t find it in himself to be upset by that. With just five words, she had torn his world apart. She should be hurting as much as he was. “You don’t even have a guarantee that they won’t kill Matt too. They’ve probably already slit his throat and thrown his body out in space. Only difference is that they made us watch Lance die.”

 _“Keith!_ That’s _enough!“_

 _“Everyone to hangar two! There’s a ship hailing us to try and dock!”_ Coran’s voice was thick, but clear enough to understand. “ _Bring your bayards in case it’s a trap.”_

In that anxious moment, an unspoken truce fell over them as they all rushed to the landing dock. Hunk stayed close to Pidge to make sure she didn’t fall. Adrenaline must’ve been helping her power through, and he only saw her start to trip once. He wasn’t sure how to feel about Pidge just yet. On one hand, he knew that it wasn’t fair to expect her to choose someone she hadn’t just spent over a year and a half searching for. But on the other, Lance had been his best friend for a long time. He loved Pidge dearly, and they had grown very close, but she wasn’t Lance. They’d hardly had any notable conversations before they came into space- not like he and Lance had. 

Pidge’s heart soared when she saw the door to the ship open to reveal Matt. But to everyone’s surprise, he was frantically trying to push through the door before it opened all the way. That was hard to do with a body in his arms. 

_“He’s still alive!”_ he cried as he ran off the small ship he’d arrived in. He was hauling Lance out, and nearly fell to the ground in his attempt. “Guys- help! Hurry up, he needs help!”

Hunk was the first to jump to action when he lurched forward to catch them both before they hit the ground. Keith was right behind him, grabbing desperately at Lance. As soon as Keith had a firm hold on Lance, Matt collapsed into Hunk’s arms, panting for air. He was quickly handed off to Pidge, and leaned heavily on her. She didn’t mind. He was looking pretty bad himself. He was sporting an angry wound on the back of his calf that had to be making it difficult to walk. Like his sister’s, his face was a mess of bruises and blood. The Galra weren’t gentle with their foes. 

However, he didn’t look nearly as bad as Lance. His brown skin was marred in much the same way Matt’s was, but it was deathly pale, and the deep line across his neck was stark red compared to the rest of him. Before anyone could get a good look at him, Keith was sprinting with him to the infirmary where Coran was waiting, with all but Pidge and Matt behind him. 

He was fast, and managed to make it there in less than two minutes. Coran immediately took Lance from his arms and set to work prepping him to go in a healing pod. Lance hadn’t said a thing since he’d arrived. Hell, he hadn’t even made a sound. That alone made Keith feel upset. It was so unlike Lance to stay quiet- especially when he had something to complain about. 

Keith just stood there, staring down at his shirt and hands. They were stained red with blood- Lance’s blood. Lance looked so peaceful in the healing pod. More relaxed than Keith had seen him in a long time. The pods did work wonders for managing pain after all. 

“Is he gonna be okay?”

When he turned around and saw Pidge in the doorway, looking on with wide eyes, the anger all came flooding back. “Get out of here.”

“Keith-“

_“Get out!”_

She jumped at the sudden increase in volume, and started to walk away without saying anything else. It might’ve been his imagination, but it looked like she was wiping away tears. _‘Like she has any right to cry. It’s her fault he’s here in the first place.’_

Whatever. She didn’t matter anymore. As far as Keith was concerned, they were on the lookout for a new Green Paladin. Her brother would probably be a perfect fit, but he doubted that Matt would agree to take her place. And he didn’t really want either Holt staying around for too long. But there were plenty of smart people out there who could be the Green Paladin. 

Looking back at his bloody hands, Keith realized that he should probably go wash himself. It had been a hell of a long day. 

One look at Lance though, and Keith realized that there was no way that he was leaving this room until he was out or there. 

•••

“Pidge,” Shiro said in a gentle tone, “you know… Keith has a point. Lance is a part of Voltron- we need him. Matt- while I know he’s important- isn’t a part of Voltron. I’m not saying we shouldn’t protect him, but if we can’t form Voltron, then we can’t protect the universe. Sometimes protecting the universe means making hard choices like that.” He had managed to find her sulking in the hallway outside of where Lance was at, and jumped at the opportunity to talk with her about what had just happened. There were certainly some things that needed to be addressed.

“So I should’ve just let him kill Matt?” Pidge challenged. Apparently she was more up for arguing with Shiro than she was with Keith. “Shiro, he’s the reason I’m in space to begin with. You wouldn’t have a Green Paladin if it wasn’t for him.”

“If we had lost Lance, and lost Voltron, then Matt would’ve died soon enough anyway. And so would your parents. Because without Voltron, the Galra would win. They would kill the rebels, and conquer Earth- if we lost Lance, we would lose everything. And you were meant to pilot the Green Lion, Katie. One way or another, you would’ve wound up here.” Shiro was blunt now. She needed to hear it. She needed to understand why a part of the Paladin’s code was to protect the other Paladins. 

Judging by the look on her face, she knew it, and just didn’t like it. “I went through so much to find him, _Takashi._ I’m not going to let him die- I won’t bury him again.”

An absurd part of Shiro wanted to laugh at her calling him ‘Takashi.’ It had been a long time since anyone had called him that. It was like he was a kid being scolded by a parent with his full name. Probably because he had called her Katie. Even though he called her Katie all the time when it was just the two of them, this time seemed to bother her. He had a feeling that she was just trying to be difficult. Shiro had to take a deep breath and remind himself that tensions were running high. Their Red Paladin was out of commission for who-knows-how-long, Keith wouldn’t leave Lance alone, and there was no way Pidge would be getting over this any time soon. “Look, all I’m saying is think before you act. Your actions have consequences.”

Pidge wanted to scream. One fuck-up and suddenly she’s being talked to like a child? Admittedly, this was a pretty huge fuck-up, but still. She just wanted this conversation to be over. She wanted her brother. “Thanks for the advice. I’m going to go check on Matt.”

Shiro sighed as he watched her turn to hightail it away from him. He could already imagine just how long the next few weeks were going to be. 

•••

“Matt...” Pidge trailed off, watching her brother sit up with a hiss. She groaned internally when he looked up at her. She’d been hoping for a smile. Not the frown that she got. “Please don’t tell me you’re mad too.”

“Why’d you do it, Pidge?”

The question caught her off guard. “What do you mean ‘why’?”

“I mean what made you risk throwing away everything you’ve worked for? Since you’ve been in space, you’ve been working your ass off with Voltron to defeat the Galra. Why would you risk losing that?”

This again. “You would do the same thing if it were me,” she said evasively in an attempt to derail his train of thought. 

“Yeah, but you’re a Paladin. I’m not. It doesn’t make any sense. So why would you risk it?”

There was no getting out of it. “Because everything I’ve done has been for you, and mom and dad. I can’t lose you Matt- not again. There was a funeral for you on Earth, and then I found your tombstone in space. I’ve been to your grave too many times. I won’t do it again. I can’t.”

Much to his surprise, his little sister had started crying again halfway through her speech. He couldn’t stand tears, especially her tears. She rarely cried in front of him at all- Pidge generally preferred to keep things private rather than try and talk with someone. This whole thing was _really_ getting to her. As quickly as his aching leg could go, he made his way over to Pidge to wrap his arms around her. “Okay. It’s okay. I’m fine, and Lance is fine. We all survived. All we got were a few nasty scrapes. Just take a deep breath.”

Pidge wasn’t dumb enough to believe him, but she appreciated the gesture. “Everyone hates me now.”

“No they don’t.”

“I deserve it. I did almost ruin everything. How am I ever going to face Lance again? I was willing to let him die. He’s my friend- I mean, he was my friend. I doubt he’s going to want to be around me anymore. None of them are ever gonna trust me again.”

Matt was at a loss for what to say. It was hard to argue with her- Pidge rarely said anything if she wasn’t one hundred percent sure she was right. And right now, she had some good points. “Well... they’re probably not feeling to fond towards me either. I’ll bet Keith would be glad to see me dead.”

She laughed weakly and nodded. “I guess so. We’ve never been super popular, have we?”

“Nope. We’re too smart for people to like us. Seriously Pidge,” Matt said as he watched her face fall again, “it’ll all work out. You’ll see.”

•••

Coran was alarmed to see the pod suddenly started flashing a piercing red light. “That- that can’t be!”

“What is it?!” Keith asked, looking scared. “What does flashing red mean?”

“It means the healing pod isn’t working- it must be his quintessence. If the pods can’t detect a certain amount of it, then they assume whoever is in them is dead and stop putting energy into keeping them alive,” he said, hurrying to get Lance out of the pod. If it wasn’t doing anything, then he needed to get him out so he could help him. 

“So... so is he dead?” If Keith looked scared, then Hunk looked absolutely terrified. Lance had been his best friend for years- they had been through so much together. No matter how much death had surrounded them, Lance was always so vibrant, doing anything he could to make people smile. Hunk needed that in his life. He loved the rest of his team, but Lance would always have a special place in his heart. 

Coran ignored Hunk and caught Lance when he fell. His hand went to grip Lance’s wrist, and he breathed a sigh of relief when he felt a faint pulse. 

“Move aside, I’m going to lay him down over there,” he instructed. He didn’t wait to see if they’d actually cleared a path before he bulldozed toward one of the cots set up in the infirmary. Once he got Lance down, Coran set about carefully examining the wound on his neck. It looked like it had scabbed over, but blood still dripped through in places. That was probably it. Blood was one of the most important tools used by quintessence, carrying it throughout the body. Without enough blood, a person’s quintessence had no way of moving around, and they would die quickly. They needed blood. “Does anyone know their blood type and would be willing to donate some for Lance? Lance is A positive.”

“How do you know that?”

“It said so on the pod.”

“I’m AB positive,” Hunk said. 

“B negative,” Keith said with a frown. 

“AB negative.”

“Hey, AB brothers!” Hunk reached out his hand to high-five Shiro, but it quickly fell back to his side. “Right. Not the time. Sorry. Allura isn’t human- our only other options are Pidge and Matt. I’ll go ask.”

He left the room, leaving everyone to sit there in an awkward silence. Thankfully it didn’t take too long for him to come running back with Pidge behind him. 

“Hunk told me what’s going on- I’m O negative. Universal donor. Here,” she said, offering out her arm. “Go nuts.”

“Well hopefully we won’t have to go too nuts. We shouldn’t need all that much.”

Pidge didn’t even flinch when the needle pierced her skin. She hadn’t looked at anyone besides Hunk and Coran. For the most part her eyes were just fixed on the crook of her arm where the blood was being drawn from. Like Coran had said, he didn’t take too much before he removed the needle and gave her a small bandage to wrap around her arm. “Thank you, number five.”

“Least I could do.”

“Literally,” Keith said, just barely loud enough for her to hear. 

Either she didn’t want to start a fight in an infirmary or she was just too exhausted to. Whatever the reason, she just sighed and walked away. She could feel Keith’s glare behind her without even having to look back. “Let me know if there’s anything else I can do.”

“Will do, Pidge,” Coran said, not really paying any attention to her. 

The room went back to being uncomfortably quiet while Coran worked, everyone exchanging uneasy glances. It was all terribly anticlimactic. This always happened when someone was injured- no one knew how to deal with it, so they just let it be. And this was the first time anyone here had to have been taken out and worked on. Coran was a professional though, and to everyone’s relief, he was able to stabilize Lance and get him back into his pod before he regained consciousness. 

“Well?” Keith demanded. “What happened?”

“I already told you. Lance was still losing quintessence through his blood. I was able to get enough of Pidge’s quintessence to get him to the point where the pod will still recognize him as alive. Hopefully that will do the trick.”

Hopefully. That was the key word, right there. At this point, all anyone could do was hope and be patient. Lance would get better. 

•••

It took another three days for Lance to be well enough to exit the pod. Three excruciatingly long days that Keith didn’t get a wink of sleep through. Three days spent with the terror that the pod would fail again and leave Lance for dead. Coran was the only person who spent nearly as much time there as Keith, hovering about and carefully monitoring Lance’s progress. As it became clearer that Lance was done recovering, the other Castle inhabitants (with the exception of Pidge, which didn’t bother Keith in the least) started to hang around him too, ready to be there when he woke up. 

And it was worth it when Lance finally fell out, healthy and happy. Keith was the first one up and grabbing at him. “Lance! Shit it’s good to see you up.”

“Feels good to be up,” Lance replied with a smile. He returned the hug tightly, pressing his face down into Keith’s shoulder. Before long, the others were crowding around him too, eager to welcome him back to the living. He couldn’t help but laugh at their enthusiasm. “Did you guys really miss me that much? Man, it's not like I died.”

“You almost did a couple of times, Lance,” Coran said matter-of-factly. “You lost quite a bit of blood, and managed to trick the pod into thinking you were dead. We had to take you out and get you a transfusion.”

“Huh. Whose blood did I get?”

“Pidge’s. She’s O negative, the only one who would work with your A positive blood type.”

“Wait, where _is_ Pidge?” Lance didn’t miss the look everyone shared at the mention of her name, and he didn’t like that. “Why isn’t she here?”

“She didn’t think you’d want to see her,” Hunk finally said when no one else came forward. 

Lance could see where she might’ve gotten that idea. But that was exactly why he needed to talk to her. “Guys, where is she at?”

“She’s probably in her Lion’s hangar,” Shiro replied. “She hasn’t been... social lately. Things have been a bit tense.”

“Wait, did Matt make it? I don’t remember much after... well I don’t remember much. Never mind, I’m gonna go talk to Pidge.” Lance sighed when Keith didn’t let go of his hand, then leaned forward to press his forehead against Keith’s. “I’m alright Keith. Promise.”

•••

“You gonna punch me?” Pidge asked apprehensively when she saw Lance approaching. 

“What? No, why would I do that?”

She shrugged. “Keith did. A few times, actually. And I’d say you have a bit more of a reason to than he did.”

“Look, I made it. There’s no reason for anyone to be mad at anyone.” 

Of course he would just try to move on. At first she had actually hoped for that. But as time had gone by, she found herself almost wishing he was angry with her. Lance’s heart was too big for his own good. He was willing to forgive someone who had sacrificed his life, and Pidge found that worrisome. What would he let pass in the future? “They’re all mad at me out there. They think I made the wrong choice.”

“Well, we can’t really go back and undo that. But Pidge, I know why you did it. I would probably choose one of my siblings too. I couldn’t imagine losing one of them.” 

”I’ve never not had a big brother before. Even when he went to space and was captured, I knew he was still out there. The thought of watching him being killed… I couldn’t let it happen. Lance, I’m so sorry that I even got you into that situation. If I’d done a better job of keeping an eye on things in that control center- if I hadn’t let those Galrans sneak up on me, none of this would’ve happened.”

Lance rolled his eyes. “Since when do you go around thinking about ‘what ifs’?”

“Since I almost got you killed.”

“We almost get killed on a pretty regular basis. It doesn’t really phase me anymore.”

Pidge couldn’t help but snort at that. Probably not the best time to laugh, but she couldn’t help it. “Right. You didn’t look scared at all.”

“I got a pretty cool scar out of it.” He ignored her and pulled down the collar of his shirt to reveal the scar that the pods just couldn’t quite fix. “Looks pretty badass, right?”

“I guess? Not as badass as Shiro’s,” Pidge said, trying for the usual playful banter they had. “Face scars are always the coolest.”

“Yeah, I guess. No one will ever measure up to Shiro’s level of badassery though. We can’t compare ourselves to him. So how’s Matt?”

“He’s fine. He needed to go back to the rebels though. New mission, you know. They always need people.” 

Lance nodded understandingly, taking note of her sad expression. He would never say it to Pidge, but every time Lance looked at her and her brother, he was reminded of how grateful he was that his siblings were safe on Earth. How she went about her day without needing to call and check up on him every five minutes was beyond him. Any time she saw him could be the last time before one of them died. Judging by the way she would always disappear for hours after seeing Matt, Lance had a feeling that she shared those thoughts. “Pidge, I really don’t blame you. I don’t trust you any less- I get it.”

She could see the sincerity in his eyes, and that gave her hope that they would be able to move past this one day. If anyone on board could come close to understanding her thoughts on this matter, it would be him. “Thanks Lance. That’s- that’s really good to hear.”

“Keith will forgive you too. He doesn’t have any brothers or sisters, so he doesn’t really understand. But he’ll burn out eventually.”

“I hope so. He’s a pain when you’re on his bad side,” she said, gingerly touching her nose. It was still boasting a nasty bruise, and Lance winced sympathetically. What with the scratches on her face and the bandage around her leg, Lance was amazed that Shiro hadn’t physically forced her into a healing pod. Somehow she always got her way with him. 

“He’s a pain no matter what. But I just can’t help that I love him.” Lance laughed when Pidge pretended to gag. This was good. It was almost like normal. 

•••

“So… Pidge told me you punched her?”

Keith nodded into Lance’s chest. They were laying in Lance’s room together, mostly in silence, but with occasional bits of chatter. “She had it coming.”

“Keith, come on. You gotta forgive her at some point. I already have.”

“How? She almost got you killed. Why are you so okay with that?”

“Maybe it’s a sibling thing. It’s hard to explain that relationship. My family drives me crazy sometimes, but at the end of the day, I would do anything for them”

“Even risk the fate of the universe?”

Lance had started to run his fingers idly through Keith’s hair. “If they were right in front of me- if I was about to watch my sister, or one of my brothers be murdered- I would drop everything in a second to do whatever I could to save them. And Pidge- she’s closer to Matt than I am with any of them. She spent all that time looking for him, Keith, she can’t just let him go.”

That was really the only answer Lance could offer, and Keith didn’t try and ask any further. He just closed his eyes and allowed himself to relax. The peace of mind that came with being able to be with Lance was incredible. It made it easy to momentarily forget that he was floating through space and flying giant Lions to fight an empire that spanned almost the entire universe. He just radiated a positive energy that Keith envied. No matter how hard he tried, Keith couldn’t come close to emulating even half the positivity that Lance was capable of. Of course, Lance had his bad days, but even then he was a gentle soul. Keith couldn’t think of a time when he had seen Lance legitimately angry. The only other person he knew like that was Hunk. Every now and then Keith would marvel at how two people as good as Lance and Hunk- two people who had no business fighting at all- ended up fighting together in a war. 

Keith looked up at Lance and sighed when he saw the thin white scar across his neck. Without really thinking about it, he reached up and gently traced his fingers along it. He snorted when Lance giggled and grabbed his hand- he’d always forget just how ticklish he was. 

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to do that.”

“I know, it’s okay.”

Maybe Lance was right, and making up with Pidge was the right thing to do. Maybe staying mad with the constant threat of death looming over them was a bad idea. He had come so close to losing Lance. This had been a harsh reminder that life was all too fleeting out here. Any mission could be their last, and in the end, there wasn’t anything they could do besides watch each other’s backs. Looking at Lance- what he’d almost lost- and Keith started to understand that. They were all out here to protect what was precious to them after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I actually finished this one a long time ago, but a few things in life went to shit so I just now got to editing and posting. I had a tricky time writing klance, I'm not sure how in-character it was. I'm not super great at writing romance. But I digress. Shoot me a request at https://the-sinnamon-roll-writes.tumblr.com/ ! I'll probably be a bit slower at finishing them than usual, but I'll always get there!


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